The 1996 Greece hockey team, which became the first Section V squad to win a state championship, will be inducted into the New York State High School Hockey Hall of Fame this weekend, according to the club’s former coach, Mike Dossier. The team will be honored during this weekend’s state hockey final four in Utica, where McQuaid plays Massena at 5 p.m. Saturday in the Division I semifinals. The New York State High School Hockey Hall of Fame is in the Lake Placid Olympic Center’s ’32 Rink Hallway and it recognizes former outstanding players, coaches and teams that have contributed noteworthy service to the sport. There are 33 other teams that have been inducted, according to the web site. Greece will be the first. It went 26-1-1 that season and beat Oswego, 4-3, in the championship. Below is a the D&C story colleague Leo Roth wrote about that game.

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Greece puts the icing on the states: Section V claims first hockey title

Taking their coach’s message to heart, Greece found a little something extra in its showdown against Oswego, capturing the 17th annual New York State Public High School Athletic Association Division I championship with a thrilling 4-3 victory at the Utica Memorial Auditorium. With time running down in regulation, senior center Bobby Garrison dug out a loose puck behind the net and took a wraparound shot that Oswego goalie Mike Tucker kicked straight out. It landed on the stick of junior winger Justin Booth, who drove home the winning goal -just his ninth of the season through a maze of bodies with 59 seconds left.

“We talked all year about playing with heart, desire and emotion,” said Dossier, who was dripping wet after a water bucket shower from his players. “You have to be able to win the race for those loose pucks and we did that at the end.”

After Garrison won two key faceoffs in Greece’s end to help kill off the final :40, the Lightning struck up a celebration, tossing sticks and gloves high into the air while trading handshakes, hugs and some tears of joy. It was a fitting response for a history making achievement: Greece is the first Section V team to capture a state hockey title -the area had been 0-for-3 in title games. And it came against powerful Section III, which yesterday captured its 11th state title when Clinton won its second straight Division II crown with a 6-5 victory over LaSalle-II.

With Greece (26-1-1) ranked No. 1 in the polls and Oswego (21-3) No. 2, the Lightning settled it on the ice in the matchup they wanted. They were led by Garrison with a goal (his 47th) and three assists and linemate Dave Insalaco with one goal and two assists. Defensemen Brian Cooper had Greece’s other goal and senior goalie Jason MacBride made 14 saves.

Matt Vashaw (two) and Erik Cole, a pair of explosive junior forwards, had Oswego’s goals. After losing to the Buccaneers 10-1 in a regular-season game last year, Greece tried several times to schedule a rematch this season but never could. “They didn’t want to play us, like we weren’t good enough or something,” Booth said. “We pretty much showed today what we’re made of.”

Greece -which had a 30-17 edge in shots -took a 2-0 first- period lead on a power play goal by Insalaco off a nice three-way passing play with Garrison and Tony Robinson and a rebound goal by Cooper. Just seconds before Cooper scored, Vashaw clanked a shot off the post on a breakaway. Oswego came back hard in the second period, though, scoring twice just 2:22 apart in the first five minutes. Cole scored off a defensive turnover and Vashaw followed with a short-handed goal. Greece got the lead back 3-2 when Garrison scored on a blast from outside his blue line at the 10:00 mark. Oswego got that one back with a fluke goal of its own when Vashaw ripped a shot from just inside the blue line into the third period.

The game appeared headed to overtime when Booth struck. With Garrison and Insalaco digging behind the Oswego net, he was in the right place at the right time. “The puck came right to me,” Booth said. “I put it in the 5-hole (between the goalie’s legs).”

“I had a sinking feeling it was slipping away,” Garrison said. “We knew we had to do it then -in regulation.”

“We ran out of gas, especially on defense,” said Oswego coach Pete Sears, whose team dropped to 0-2 in title games. “We’re not quite as deep as Greece and it caught up with us. That’s as good a team as we’ve seen, no doubt.”

Being so good for so long would’ve left the Lightning with an empty feeling had they fallen short. To handle the burden of being No. 1, they mentally took the season shift by shift, game by game. “This team has been a family from Day One,” Insalaco said. “We just kept working hard until the job was done.”

Two victories last week, including a 4-1 triumph over Webster Thomas, propelled Pittsford back to the top of the final Section V hockey poll of the regular season.

The Panthers (14-3-1), who were also ranked first two weeks ago, received 112 points and five of the 12 first-place votes cast. Pittsford plays Penfield on Thursday night and No. 2 Fairport (15-4) on Saturday in a game that will have a heavy impact on the seedings for the upcoming Section V Class A Tournament.

The win over Thomas was Steve Thering’s 100th as varsity coach of the Panthers.

The Red Raiders moved up three spots from No. 5 last week, receiving three first-place votes and registering 92 points. McQuaid (13-5-1), last week’s No. 1, received four first-place votes and totaled 84 points.

When Greece Olympia senior Desmond Mobley launched himself into a long jump pit at The College at Brockport last weekend, he set the Section V indoor track record at 24 feet-1 inch.

Mobley also produced his second performance of the season that is among the top 10 in the nation, according to a leaderboard compiled by MileSplit.com.

Greece Olympia senior Desmond Mobley set the Section V indoor track record with this long jump during the Trent Jackson Memorial Invitiational at the College at Brockport. KRIS J. MURANTE/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Only Andre Jefferson, who competes with John Tyler in Tyler, Texas at 24-11 has a long jump further than Mobley’s best during the Trent Jackson Memorial Invitational inside Brockport’s Special Events Recreation Center.

Mobley and Le Roy junior Rubin Owens also are sixth on the MileSplit.com boys high jump leaderboard at 6-8.

Lembo

Penfield senior Katie Lembo ran what is the third-fastest 1,500 on Jan. 5 at 4:40.71. Here are more performances in the section that are top 10 on the milesplit.com national leaderboards:

There are at least 10 more athletes from Edison, Webster Thomas, Northeast/Northwest Prep, and others that have produced top 30 performances on the national leaderboard. You can find those lists at this link:

“Senior Night” for the Pittsford wrestling team could have came and went in mid-December.

The Panthers instead, said they wanted to hold off and hold their send-off on the other side of Monroe County, in Brockport.

There they want to acknowledge the link between the Monroe County teams represented by the late Matt Leach, whose days as an assistant high school wrestling coach began in Brockport and continued during the last three years with the Pittsford combined district team. Mr. Leach died at the age of 37 in July, after an accidental shooting.

Matt Leach, on the left, coached with Pittsford's Jason Bovenzi the last three high school wrestling seasons. Leach was a Section V and Monroe County champion during his senior year at Brockport. PROVIDED PHOTO

Senior captains from both teams plan to present flowers to Leach’s mother and wife. Proceeds from admission tickets, memorial t-shirt sales at the meet and donations go into the scholarship fund established in Leach’s name.

All fans are asked to wear black, as a nod to Leach’s coaching contributions to Pittsford, Brockport and Greece Athena. The color also often was Leach’s choice for his wardrobe during wrestling events.

When studs meet: Lancaster senior Eric Lewandowski, a two-time Section VI champion, is capable of winning a state wrestling championship.

That also goes for Shenendehowa senior Nick Kelley, who was a fourth-place finisher at the 2012 Junior National Freestyle Championships in Fargo, N.D. and twice came in the top-four at states. Lewandowski finished in sixth in his weight class at states last year.

So when Kelley and Lewandowski met in the Teike/Bernabi Wrestling Tournament 138-pound final on Dec. 28, the bout had the feel of a main event. Kelley came out on top this time, as he pinned Lewandowski at 3 minutes, 20 seconds. It was the first loss in 19 matches this season for Lewandowski, while Kelley improved to 14-1 and 219-19 overall.

“I know he is a scrambling wrestler,” Kelley said. “I was just scrambling around with him.”

Lewandowski ended up on his back, Kelley pounced and took advantage.

A rematch would be interesting, whether or not it’s at the state championships.

Brockport senior quarterback Tom Sydeski passed for 2,098 yards with a school-record 24 touchdown passes last season for Brockport. The Blue Devils were a Monroe County division champion for the first time.

More than 350 varsity or junior varsity players from Section V schools have registered to take part in a camp sponsored by the NFL Youth Football Fund and National Guard.

“It’s such a great opportunity for the kids, especially the way funds are nowadays,” Wayne varsity football coach David Marean said.

Greece Arcadia football coach John Lockhart with instructions at the 2011 NFL High School Player Development Program event at Wayne.(PROVIDED PHOTO).

The camp, free for the high school players, is Monday, June 4 through Friday, June 8 at Wayne High School in Ontario.

Registration can still take place on the first day, with proof of an updated physical and a form that must be filled out by the participant and a parent at Wayne.

The on-field sessions, 6-8 p.m. each night, are in helmets and shorts, with supervision from coaches in Section V.

It is part of the National Football League High School Player Development Program that will include talks about character development and life skills with 40,000 high school players at 200 sites in the nation.

Players from Wayne, Midlakes, Brighton, Penfield, Greece Arcadia, Greece Olympia, East, Irondequoit, Aquinas, Churchville-Chili and a pair from the state of New Jersey are among those who have registered.

Devin Snyder

For more information call Geneva DeSales football coach John Evans 315-664-6644.

Section V track and field honors: The most valuable performers from the Section V championship meets were presented the Devin Snyder Award on June 1 during the state qualifier in Penn Yan.

The awards, determined by votes of coaches, were created in honor of Snyder, a United States Army Sgt. and a former track and field athlete at Wayland-Cohocton. Snyder was killed in Afghanistan last June at the age of 20.

Here are the recipients, many of whom have advanced to the state meet, June 8-9 at Cicero-North Syracuse High:

Jeff DiVeronica has covered Section V for the Democrat and Chronicle since 1994. A native of Canastota, N.Y., where he played soccer, basketball and baseball, “Devo” began his career at the Chillicothe (Ohio) Gazette before returning to Rochester in 1993. The St. John Fisher College graduate also covers the Rochester Rhinos soccer team and Syracuse University basketball. He founded the Canandaigua National Bank High School Sports Show, which airs Saturdays at noon on WHTK-AM (1280), in 2003. E-mail Jeff at jdiveron@DemocratandChronicle.com.Follow:@RocDevo

James Johnson has covered Section V for the Democrat and Chronicle since 1996. The St. John Fisher College and Edison graduate also has provided features and game stories tied to NASCAR, professional golf, baseball, hockey, boxing and tennis. His career began in 1995 at the Press-Sun Bulletin in Binghamton, where he helped cover Section IV high school sports. E-mail James at jamesj@DemocratandChronicle.com.Follow:@jjDandC